Monsters Inc is yet another highly successful outing by Pixar with a cast that could make Toy Story shiver in it's boots. This movie has the same delicious mixture of heart, humor, and technical wizardry that made A Bug's Life and the two Toy Story movies into instant classics. Like Jim Henson, who decided to make his Sesame Street characters monsters so that kids would never be afraid of monsters again, the people behind Monsters, Inc. have created monsters that even the shyest child will find completely unscary. In fact, kids may decide that multiple heads, removable eyes, and hair made from snakes are kind of cute. The monsters in Monsters, Inc. are more afraid of kids than kids are of monsters. But monsters need to collect kids' screams to fuel their world, and children are getting so hard to scare that the monsters' world is suffering from rolling blackouts. Top scarer John "Sulley" Sullivan (voiced by John Goodman) and rival Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi) work as hard as they can to break the scream-collection record. But when Randall inadvertently lets a human child into the monster world, the monsters find out what being scared is really like.
The movies main protagonists - Sulley and Mike — brilliantly improvised by John Goodman and Billy Crystal — are bickering buddies yet funny, loveable and, above all, inseparable. This makes them a team in a way that Woody and Buzz were not. Woody and Buzz represented polar points of view and generated a genuine thematic tension which adults could grasp. Mike and Sulley are a more straightforward double-act. Sully is brave and dedicated. Wazowski is phobic, frightened, and malingering. Together, they cover the spectrum of work traits. Celia (voice by Jennifer Tilly) who is dating Wazowski spends the movie as an attached and rather jealous girlfriend, her character isn't as developed as I would like just as Bo Peep in Toy story. Of course the performance by Mary Gibbs who voiced Boo was spot on as she wasn't even acting, she was simply followed around with a microphone in order to get a genuine child reaction.
There must be villains, and this time they are Henry J. Waternoose (James Coburn), who looks like a crab crossed with a cartoon of Boss Tweed, and Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi), a snaky schemer who wants to dethrone Sully as the champion scream collector. Randall is the obvious villain of the movie with Waternoose's shock reveal however it's easy to understand Waternoose's motive, he wants to stop his business sinking into the ground and keep the city running. Randall on the other hand is just pure evil, kidnapping kids to torture them in the basement for their screams, sounds like something from a horror movie.
Again the animators at Pixar upped their game from Toy Story 2, with scales, intricate fur and the exceptional door chase scene they were ahead of the game in animation. The animation of Wazowski is interesting because the animators apparently had so little to work with. Instead of an expressive face and a lot of body language, they're given, as one of the leads of the picture, an eyeball. Luckily, the eyeball has an eyelid, or maybe it's a brow, and with this to work with, the artists are able to supply him with all the facial expressions a monster would ever need especially one without a face.
In some ways Monsters, Inc. — co-directed by Pete Docter, David Silverman and Lee Unkrich, with Pixar guru John Lasseter serving as executive producer — is everything we’ve come to expect from the Disney/Pixar axis. Monsters, Inc. is cheerful, high-energy fun, and like the other Pixar movies, has a running supply of gags and references aimed at grownups. Monsters, Inc. actually has a fair amount of heft when you start to break apart its life-lesson themes. Loyalty, love, friendship, making good decisions, bravery in the face of dark closet recesses and standing up for what's right, even when what's right seems at first to go against everything your culture tells you is correct.
Easter Eggs
#1 A113 & Pizza Planet Truck
This film is short on an A-113 reference. There is supposed to be an A-13 painted on a pillar or wall inside the Door Vault near the end of the film, no one has been able to spot it. It is possible it is the “13” on the trash compactor that supposedly crushes Boo. The pizza truck is also a little hard to spot, but once you see it, you can’t miss it. It is parked next to a trailer at the end of the film. Looks to be the same trailer as A Bug’s Life as Flik made his epic journey from Ant Island to the big city. Rather cleverly, Pixar decided to re-use this little set (complete with identical framing) in Monsters Inc., when bad guy Randall (as voiced by Steve Buscemi) finds himself flung through a magic doorway and ends up getting whacked to a pulp by an angry hillbilly woman wielding a shovel.
#2 Pinocchio Reference
Whilst Mike and Sully are on their way to work, Monstro, the whale from Pinocchio, can be seen hanging on a poster.
#3 Nemo
The first appearance of Nemo is behind the sushi chef at Harryhausens, then when Mike opens the door to throw Randall through, a clownfish can be seen on the wall and Boo tries to give Sulley her Nemo toy at the end of the movie.
#4 Luxo Ball & Jessie
That final scene inside of Boo’s room the Luxo Ball (also known as Pixar Ball) is visible on the floor in front of her bed. Boo also shows her excitement at being home by giving Sully all of her favorite toys for him to play with. One of these toys is Jessie from Toy Story 2.
#5 Hidden Mickey
There are a few hidden mickey's in Monsters Inc, during the opening credits, there is a door which opens. In one shot, a small toy truck can be seen on the bottom right hand side, on the side of this is a Mouseketeer hat. As Sully is leaving the snow cave, a three circle mickey can be seen on his back as he turns to ski out. The last one is on a easel in Boo's room, a drawing of Mickey can be seen.
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